School In Winter

It's 20 degrees outside, and I'm cold. Probably I wouldn't be feeling it quite so much had it not been 60 earlier in the week! Oh, well, from the look of the long-range forecast, I'd better do some quick adjusting.

I was tougher when I was a kid – probably we were all were. I grew up in that drafty farmhouse heated with a wood stove. We closed off the two north rooms in the winter, but the rest of the rooms were none too warm! The kitchen was the best place in the house because it not only housed the wood stove but also the gas cook stove. It was always warmer in there when we heated up the oven to bake something for supper.

I know it was tough on my folks, dealing with the winter weather. As the first one up, Dad had to build up the fire that had been stoked overnight and get the house more heated up. They had to go to the well and pump water to be heated up on the stove for morning washing up. In the winter, the teakettle stayed on top of the wood stove most of the time. In the coldest of weather, hot water had to be hauled from the house to the well to pour down the pump to loosen up all the workings and get it primed to work.

We always had at least one milk cow, so Dad would make the trek to the barn in the dark to do the morning milking. Mom would have a hot breakfast ready for him when he got back to the house. All of this was before I ever crawled out from under my covers! The coffeepot was always ready for Dad to plug in when he got up, so at least he could have some hot coffee before going out for his chores.

Speaking of my warm covers, I always really hated to leave the warmth of the bed. Sometimes it seemed like it would take all night to get everything warmed up and toasty – and then it was time to get up! I remember all the heavy old quilts, piled on to the point you could hardly change positions underneath all the weight. I was grateful for the grandmas and great-grandmas who had made those warm quilts.

As long as I was in school, we had a “dresses only” dress code – no culottes, slacks, etc., allowed for the girls. And this was the 60's, the era of the miniskirt. It's a wonder we all didn't have pneumonia! In elementary school, we would have our recess time in the gym when it was too cold for the playground. But we still had to switch buildings to go to the gym, to go to lunch, and to go to music class. I don't specifically remember, but surely the teachers had us wear our coats in the winter during elementary school.

Junior High and High School, though, was a different story. Junior high math was in the Industrial Arts Building – or, The Shop. It was an open brick building that was very hard to heat. Our coats were kept on hooks in the hallway of the main building, on the top floor. So they weren't handy to grab before math class. We had music, band, P.E., and lunch in the Gym building. So we were constantly running back and forth across the street between the main building and the gym. And that's just the way it was. Short skirts, pantyhose, dress shoes, and snow or ice. Like I said, we were tougher then!

Tuesdays and Thursdays during high school presented an additional weather challenge. On those days, the high school girls had their P.E. Class – during the final class period of the day. And when the bell rang, school was over and you had to get to your bus or be left. There was no time to change. And in cold weather, when we'd been playing basketball and doing basketball drills for 40 minutes in shorts and t-shirts and were all hot and sweatty – we grabbed our books, school clothes and coat and ran to get on the bus. Even though we'd have our coats on once we got to the bus, it could be a pretty cold ride home.

And did I mention this was also in the time before athletic shoes – so we were wearing canvas tennies. That made for such a nice walk across the yard in the snow. Yep, I was tougher then!